Continued
from page five
“Love Contracts” for
consensual relationships
Sounds
silly at first glance but take a deeper look as these so-called “Love Contracts” might
just be something your company can use.
It’s
a cold, hard reality that relationships go sour, including
those between Executives and subordinates, and
many of these relationships, when ended, are used as a springboard
for a sexual harassment lawsuit.
The Executive
ends the relationship, the subordinate is unhappy about
it and cries “sexual harassment”,
stating he/she felt his/her job would be in jeopardy if he/she
didn’t consent to the relationship with his/her superior.
Or, the subordinate claims to have wanted to end the relationship
but felt that his/her continued employment would be in jeopardy
if he/she ended the relationship and therefore kept the relationship
going unwillingly.
Somewhat
like a “prenuptial agreement” that
protects one fiancé or the other, a “love contract” is
designed to protect the Executive and his/her company from
false claims of sexual harassment made by a subordinate who
was actually consensually involved.
The “love contract”, typically issued to the
subordinate employee by the Executive, will typically state
that the relationship is voluntary and wanted by both parties.
It will, again typically, state the existence of the company’s
harassment policy and that the Executive will not allow the
relationship, or the ending of it, to influence his/her decisions
in regards to the subordinate’s employment.
The contract
will usually affirm that both parties will use the company’s
sexual harassment procedures should a problem arise and,
should a work-related dispute erupt
both parties agree to resolve their differences through methods
other than court, such as arbitration and/or other methods.
While
it may not be certain whether or not these contracts would
be enforceable in a court of law, it couldn’t
hurt to be able to show the judge the employee’s signature
indicating that the relationship is/was consensual.
Inappropriate and/or offensive emails
Pornographic
email is on the rise (pardon the pun ;). Have you or your
employees received pornographic email at work?
Have you taken steps, such as installing filtering software,
to stop these emails from arriving in your employee’s
email?
If you
don’t do enough to halt this type of email
you could be perceived as “not caring” and therefore
guilty of allowing your employee(s) to be sexually harassed.
As part of your sexual harassment and electronic communications,
think about adding a section that clearly states that employees
are to use the computers for company business only and that
any employee using a computer to view pornographic materials
will be disciplined.
In addition,
install software that will filter email and isolate/delete
pornographic messages so that they do not
arrive in your employee’s email.
Next: Some questions to consider
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